The present invention relates to a remote maintenance system that prevents possible failure of an apparatus or detects a failure caused, and relates particularly to a remote maintenance system suitable for displaying the result of remote maintenance of general measuring equipment (hereinafter called an apparatus-to-be-maintained) including clinical inspection data analyzer or clinical inspection data processor.
Lately, with the advancement of network technology, it becomes easier to maintain an analyzer at a remote location through a network. Since the capacity of analyzer for clinical inspection has enhanced, effect on medical treatment resulting from a failure of analyzer has become more serious and it becomes necessary to find out the cause of the failure and, upon occurrence, repair the failure as soon as possible. For this reason, it becomes important to automate failure prevention by means of remote maintenance through a network and, further more, carry out real-time repair activities upon occurrence of a failure.
A known conventional remote maintenance system, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 6-62130 (1994), has been such that a medical apparatus and a center in charge of the maintenance, inspection and management of the apparatus are connected by a telephone line and, when a failure detected in the medical apparatus is sent to the center, a repair command is sent from the center to the medical apparatus.
The system disclosed in Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 6-62130 (1994), however, involves a problem on assurance of the quality of maintenance because explicit indication is not considered as to whether the apparatus has finally been maintained in a usable condition or when the apparatus becomes usable if it is under maintenance. For the persons engaged in clinical inspection who are in a position of managing the apparatus directly (hereinafter, those who directly manage the apparatus-to-be-maintained are generically called xe2x80x9cpersonnel in chargexe2x80x9d), it is necessary to operate the analyzer with the help of information not only on the progress of repair but on the result of repair and schedule of repair. In short, the repair result information and repair schedule information of the apparatus are very important to carry out clinical inspection in practice but the afore-mentioned prior art lacks in this information.
The conventional system involves another problem on assurance of the quality of maintenance because no consideration is given to possible uneasiness of the personnel in charge resulting from a lack of explicit indication as to whether sure and proper maintenance has really been carried out in the remote maintenance that is not attended with actual actions by operators. Generally, in case of remote maintenance where maintenance activities are automated, it holds true that the personnel managing the apparatus directly do not feel any progress of maintenance actually and so feel uneasy about the completion of maintenance because the personnel cannot confirm the quality of maintenance visually. In the past,the personnel in charge were able to assure themselves of the timing and progress of maintenance on an occasion of a visit of maintenance service persons and actual maintenance activities by them, and accordingly can feel the completion of maintenance in actuality. In the remote maintenance, however, the personnel cannot have this actual feeling.
The objective of the present invention is to provide a remote maintenance system which informs the personnel in charge that maintenance has been carried out surely and properly and enables the personnel in charge to definitely judge whether the apparatus is really in a usable condition.
(1) In order to realize the above object, the present invention provides a remote maintenance system in which a maintenance center in charge of remote maintenance is connected to an apparatus-to-be-maintained by a communication channel and a maintenance monitor mechanism is installed in the apparatus-to-be-maintained or on the communication channel; wherein the maintenance monitor mechanism comprises of a maintenance control section that controls and carries out remote maintenance of the apparatus-to-be-maintained, a maintenance history storage unit that records maintenance history, and a display unit; and the remote maintenance system acquires the date and time of the maintenance last carried out from the maintenance history storage unit and displays xe2x80x9cMaintenance Not Problematicxe2x80x9d if the difference between the date and time of the maintenance and the current date and time does not exceed a required maintenance interval or displays xe2x80x9cMaintenance Problematicxe2x80x9d if the difference exceeds the interval.
With this configuration, it becomes possible to inform of the personnel in charge that maintenance has been carried out surely and properly and enable the personnel in charge to definitely judge whether the apparatus is really in a usable condition.
(2) That in (1) above is provided, wherein, preferably, the date and time of the last maintenance out of those that were carried out with no problem found concerning utilization of the apparatus is used instead of the date and time of the maintenance last carried out.
(3) That in (1) above is provided, wherein, preferably, the system contains different required maintenance intervals dependent upon the type of maintenance controlled by the maintenance control section, and switches the required maintenance interval corresponding to each type of maintenance and displays xe2x80x9cMaintenance Problematic/Not Problematicxe2x80x9d.
(4) That in (1) above is provided, wherein, preferably, the system displays restrictions concerning utilization of the apparatus in case of xe2x80x9cMaintenance Problematicxe2x80x9d.
(5) That in (1) above is provided, wherein, preferably, the system displays current status if maintenance activity is being carried out in case of xe2x80x9cMaintenance Problematicxe2x80x9d.
(6) That in (5) above is provided, wherein, preferably, if any restriction concerning utilization of the apparatus is caused, the system displays the restriction.
(7) That in (1) above is provided, wherein, preferably, at the request of an operator, the system judges whether the difference exceeds the required maintenance interval and displays accordingly.
(8) That in (1) above is provided, wherein, preferably, the system judges whether the battery in the maintenance monitor mechanism or in the apparatus-to-be-maintained has run down and displays the result of the judgment.
(9) That in (1) above is provided, wherein, preferably, the system judges whether the current date and time of the timer in the maintenance monitor mechanism or in the apparatus-to-be-maintained is correct and displays the result of the judgment.
(10) That in (1) above is provided, wherein, preferably, the system is equipped with a GPS (Global Positioning System) installed inside a mobile vehicle in charge of maintenance activity, and transmits and displays the current position data of the mobile vehicle from the GPS to the display unit via the communication channel.
(11) That in (1) above is provided, wherein, preferably, the system calculates the hours required until the arrival of the mobile vehicle at the location of the apparatus-to-be-maintained, and transmits and displays the required hours on the display unit.
(12) That in (1) above is provided, wherein, preferably, the system is equipped with a maintenance history storage unit installed in the maintenance center, and,
when the communication channel between the maintenance center and the apparatus-to-be-maintained is connected, compares the maintenance history recorded in the maintenance history storage unit in the maintenance center at the last connection of the communication channel to the maintenance history recorded in the maintenance history storage unit in the maintenance monitor mechanism, and carries out remote maintenance if the two records agree with each other or shuts down the communication channel if not.
(13) That in (1) above is provided, wherein, preferably, the system displays the maintenance histories in the maintenance history storage unit on the display unit.
(14) That in (1) above is provided, wherein, preferably, the system displays the required maintenance interval, current time of the timer, and maintenance history in the maintenance history storage unit, either in strings of numeric numbers of the frequency distribution calculated per specified unit time or in a form of distribution histogram charting the strings of numeric numbers in time series, on the display unit.